2013 an exhibition of works by

2013

Front oil Cover on canvas 91.5 x 121.9 cm (36 x 48 in) 1 Studio Campion, 2012 For almost fifty years now, Geoffrey Key has been one of the most successful and recognised names in Northern contemporary art. His boldly stylised landscapes, still lifes, equestrian and figure subjects – long sought after Forewordby and ’s private collectors and institutions – now evidently inspire the work of several succeeding Northern painters. And yet, while he has often shown his work to international acclaim, Key chose to build his success largely on his own patch, and always on his own terms.

In 1966, while many of his peers were participating in the Northern Young Contemporaries exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Key, who had not been invited, opened a one-man show at the Salford Art Gallery. Art critic for the Daily Express, William Hickey in his glowing and curators as ‘one of the best local artists, untouched review of the show quoted dealers and collectors who by Lowry-mania’; ‘one of the, if not the best artist praised Key, alternately terming him “the best thing working in the area’; ‘an immensely gifted artist’; to come along since Lowry”, and “nothing like Lowry.” ‘a consistent ambassador for [Salford]’, and so on. Other critics followed with favourable comparisons to Henry Moore and Keith Vaughan, but these too were If Key found this growing acclaim flattering (and why subsequently termed “superficial.” In the catalogue essay not?) it clearly had no bearing on how his work grew and accompanying Key’s Industrial Paintings exhibition, developed, as it did very prolifically. Hints of various Neville Rawlinson, an early collector of his work finally strands of British and European modernism may surface commented: ‘It is unnecessary to make comparisons, off and on, but his style and technique have the kind of or to attribute influences; [Key] has already established internal consistency that only comes out of an assured, a style, which is personal and recognisible, and he is wholly individual artistic personality. constantly experimenting and developing. He is a young man with notable accomplishments; and tremendous Indeed, confidence and eccentricity would appear to promise.’ be the cornerstones not only of Key’s work, but also his personality, and even appearance. Bearded, bow-tied and For the most part, Rawlinson’s statement still holds true, keen-eyed, with a nifty line in waistcoats, his conversation but at the time, Key met all this praise with the wry good about his work, and himself is open yet considered. grace that still marks his character, stating: “the thought He speaks warmly and evenly, and is moreover a good of being taken up and lionised doesn’t worry me, simply listener, showing genuine interest in how others see his because it hasn’t happened and might never happen.” work – even if these reactions have little to do with his Nevertheless, throughout the rest of the 1960s and the actual motivations. Moreover, video interviews and studio 1970s, Key continued to find himself described by critics footage show a true epicurean’s fearless enjoyment of

oil on canvas 76.2 x 61 cms 30 x 24 ins 2 Panama with Saw, 2012 oil on canvas 61 x 50.8 cms 24 x 20 ins 3 City Workers, 2012 Opposite oil on canvas 121.9 x 91.5 cms 48 x 36 ins 4 City’s Edge, 2012 paint. Watching Key take a fully loaded brush and meet In an effort to foster his interest, and possibly gain his canvas with a sure, solid, sweep of colour is to feel all some relief from the tedium of housework, Key’s mother the rush of making that first mark on a blank page, with would often take him to the City Art Gallery (as it was none of the angst or self-doubt. then known). At that time the gallery’s now eclectic collection was largely comprised of donations by late Victorian industrialists, and reflected their taste for the Pre-Raphaelite and early Social Realist painters [e.g. Waterhouse, Millais, Ford Maddox Brown, Sickert etc.). Even subliminally, such works must have made some impression on Key’s young imagination, and it is tempting to believe that seeing one of William Roberts’s monumental women might have had some sort of formative influence, even if his mother (and his instincts) discouraged him from actually copying works. He could not help but know the work by Adolphe Vallette and, particularly, L. S. Lowry. Later, as a student, he often saw Lowry at the Lyons Coffee House on Albert Square and came to know the iconic painter.

This same joie-de-vivre also fills the Salford studio- home Key shares with his wife, Judith O’Leary, an avid horsewoman, and editor of several books on his work. Their house is filled with African and Asian artefacts, particularly from India and Tibet, many of which were collected on travels to exhibit Key’s work in the Far East. Key’s own carved heads and busts sit fittingly in rooms furnished with baroque paintings, sculpture and furniture, where they peep out from beneath his impressive collection of fedoras. The curving forms of orchids, majolica pots and treen, stained glass and pops of yellow throughout the rooms harmonise with Key’s own pictures, past and present, drawing the eye with When he was thirteen, Key won a place at the Manchester their stylish, rubber-ball energy. High School of Art, Ernest Goodman’s initiative, and by the late 1950s he began studies with Ted Roocroft and Key can scarcely remember a time when art was not at the Manchester Regional College at the centre of his life. As he recalls: ‘I remember the of Art. Key frankly describes his first pictures as being shock and delight of experiencing the smell of oil paints more or less re-treads of Rutherford’s work, which in and turpentine and the feel of paper and canvas. These turn was largely informed by that of his own teacher, physical things are sources of pleasure on their own, so Sickert. In his early career, Key was often referred add to them the fact that drawing has always been the to as a close successor to Lowry, if only because he most instinctive and simplest way to describe something, painted local townscapes and used a similar restrained and I was set on the path to become an artist from as palette. But unlike Key (or for that matter Rutherford, early as I can remember.’ whose work was far more influential on Key) Lowry defined his cityscapes by their human presence. In these early works – studies of Manchester’s city centre – Key instead combined Rutherford’s bold, prosaic style with a strong graphic appeal that recalls prints by the Grosvenor School, and demonstrates his early interest in compositional dynamism.

Piccadilly, Manchester, 1965 Head, 1967, David Messum Fine Paintings Ltd Salford Art Gallery

Throughout the late 1950s and into the early 1960s, like many artists of the time, Key experimented with a variety of styles and influences taken from (among others) Ben Nicholson, Victor Pasmore, Paul Nash and Keith Vaughan. He sifted various aspects from these artists’ work for technical, formal and stylistic clues, but his artistic conclusions remained completely personal. Early works like Head (1967) and Flowers in Moonlight (1966) show a focus on pure composition and an emphasis on tone and texture over colour familiar from works by Nicholson, in particular. Flowers in Moonlight, 1966, Salford Art Gallery

oil on canvas 61 x 76.2 cms 24 x 30 ins 5 Guitar, 2012 Opposite oil on canvas 76.2 x 101.6 cms 30 x 40 ins 6 Park Tango, 2012

His astute borrowings from European modernism (particularly the School of Paris) show he was possibly also looking at works by Picasso, Braque, Lipschitz and Zadkine, among others. But whatever signposts technical, formal or stylistic he may have found in the work of other artists, his destination remained completely his own, and would inevitably be centred on his native North.

Upon completion of his post-graduate work in sculpture, Key moved to in Derbyshire, where he took up a teaching post. Around this time he became increasingly obsessed by the Nab, and made countless studies of the fell and its surroundings: these are both landscapes and exercises in the interplay of curves and straight lines. Key describes his focus on these early, formative has been through my work right up to the present time.’ landscapes: ‘I didn’t go searching for the subject matter Simultaneously, he also painted industrial landscapes, because [the Nab] was my environment and changing mostly of Eccles, and often based on the view outside seasons changed the format and shape of the hill. What his classroom window. This particular aspect, coupled really instigated it was the relationship of shapes and with the fact that in the 1960s, art class was basically forms within the hill-shape… One key part was a strong little more than a holding pen for unruly students, partly vertical shaft of light above the hill and this particular influenced Key’s decision to eventually quit teaching and motif…this form in relationship to sun and moon shapes take up painting full time. Following his highly successful Salford show, during the 1970s he exhibited at several northern venues, including Sheffield, Manchester, and Bradford. By the early 1980s, he also began to show his work at Todmorden Fine Art, a Dickensian bran tub of a gallery located off a side street in this West Yorkshire market town. It was then, and is now still owned by renowned art dealer, David Gunning, whose keen eye for a good picture and complete lack of pretence has drawn collectors and artists for over thirty years. Key also continued to gain international exposure and acclaim with solo and groups exhibitions in London, New York, Lausanne, Nancy and Clermont-Ferrand at the Salon d’Automne exhibition. Dealers, collectors, and curators outside of were now becoming familiar with his richly textured nudes, landscapes and still lifes, painted in bold colours tempered by subtle glazes and marked by his signature post-Cubist style.

In the 1980s, he travelled to Amsterdam, where he painted the city’s unique topography in a site-specific David Gunning, renowned art dealer

palette that radically shifted, when almost a decade later, he repeated the exercise in Hong Kong. ‘My use of colour developed dramatically’, he says. ‘My first visit to Hong Kong and the New Territories opened my eyes – in Northern Europe I had not witnessed such intense light and vibrant colour.’

Although his palette, in most respects, would never be the same after his return from the Far East, from the beginning his working method has remained largely consistent. He begins by strongly outlining his compositions on the support ground, before blocking in his forms using a very basic primary palette: warm colours to advance forms, and cool ones to recede. He then uses various glazes to make adjustments and refinements to tone. For the most part, his forms are not only contained, but exist largely as elements of whatever pattern of curves and parabolas Key believes they afford. Shopfront at Todmorden Fine Art oil on canvas 61 x 76.2 cms 24 x 30 ins 7 Kitchen Window, 2012 He never works from any sort of set model, be it a reduced to just a strong horizontal… so from that photograph or an actual arrangement of objects, still less came a concentration on figures.’ does he set up his easel and paint en plein-air. Instead, he finds individual objects that appeal, studies them This approach also extends to his city/landscapes, for visually, sets them aside and reinterprets them based on which he often makes studies whilst on the train. There his own stored perception or subliminal concept of their are studies in only the most shorthand, rudimentary form. ‘I rarely paint directly from life, as I would feel sense, which he then variously combines to make I was in the process of copying. This means that much compositions based on how he believes they create a of my work is formed from memory or an amalgam of visual rhythm. This notational approach means that his memories.’ In fact, Key finds the specific details of an city/landscapes are not topographical, but expressions of object (the texture of lemon rind, the folds of a pepper, a vitality, largely unseen, which exists within them. Often etc.) unimportant, and even a possible distraction from only the presence of cooling towers or canals point to the whole. “The mind has a wonderful way of distilling these views being someplace north of Watford. an image down to its essential”, he says. However, if you were to ask Key to ‘explain’ his work, Just as importantly rather than tackling each canvas as what he aims to ‘say’, and expect a quantifiable list an individual vehicle for expression, he tends to paint in of sources and tropes, you might be disappointed. series, and regards each picture as a link in a chain: This is not because he is unclear, or even cagey about what motivates him as an artist; it is more that he ‘… I look on painting as a problem. Once solved, understands the inherent tedium of explaining why the finished painting dictates the next problem… art is made. ‘If I sat around ‘waiting for inspiration’ After painting the Nab, the relationship of curved to I’d get nowhere…No, I aim to sit down to work every straight lines were very much human or figure forms day, let my thoughts assemble themselves and set so the Nab itself dictated figures. I incorporated very down the ideas that flow. This isn’t as mysterious as it simplified figure forms within the landscape and in might sound it’s a matter of discipline and application, time the figure forms became more dominant and getting on by getting on. In the course of working in the actual Nab shape became more insignificant and this way my imagination works on things I’ve seen and

oil on canvas 61 x 50.8 cms 24 x 20 ins 8 Farm Tango, 2012 experienced, distils them, getting to the essence of the image so I can express what matters.’

Key’s work is proof that he finds the process of painting, drawing and sculpting tremendous fun. But after nearly fifty years, he also understands that while being an artist may be fun, the details of it, the technical aspects, the required time investment, even the motivation to go to the studio every day, are decidedly not. As he puts it: ‘a valid aim of good art can be about celebrating beauty and happiness in even the smallest things. As with anything of true value and quality, I like to think the hard work is there, hidden in the background, with the results evident for the viewer to gain a positive, even joyful, experience.’

On one hand, this reticence about his artistic goals, or ‘message’ makes a convenient hedge against pinning himself or his work to any one interpretation, or identity. But pruning his visual language back and eliminating useless details, enhances the intensity of his forms and compositions, allowing the viewer to see them as a spontaneous, self-contained whole. And his bold, populist images, infused with vivid colour, mobile perspective, and a genuine sense of enjoyment, make up a visual reality Key creates entirely by himself to share with the viewer. Cones, curves, and ellipses – splashed with pure colour – are united by strong black lines or just a sense of gravitational pull. And in Key’s world, gravity is not so much a force as a benign unifying energy. The sense of humour or, maybe more accurately, bonhomie in a lot of his work, evokes – for me, at least – the bright, wicked fun of animated cartoons, the best of which prove that any break from reality, continuity, logic or physics is permissible, if not essential. He toys with light and form, interlocking surface and depth in a way that could be loosely termed cubistic. But Key never really deconstructs his fruit, guitars, jugs, hats, etc.: all things which can be considered comic as well as beautiful – if only because to do so might take the inherent fun out of them.

In his landscapes, the rhythmic interplay of curves and David Messum and Carol Tee of Messum’s at Geoffrey’s straight lines packs a fleeting graphic punch, like the studio view from a speeding train (which is often his actual

oil on canvas 50.8 x 76.2 cms 20 x 30 ins 9 Power Station and Canal, 2012 point of view). Likewise, the primary colours and work apart and has hyperbolic curves of cooling towers, bridges and roofs made its popularity imply the verve of humanity, though he rarely, if ever, so enduring is that includes actual figures in these works. His riders, which he apparently never are informed by his sculpture and knowledge of ancient had any problem reliefs, alternately appear to charge out of the canvas or with either side of freeze in attitude. But for all their classical power, Key’s this equation. His energy of line, form and colour also reminds us of the style is sympathetic arrested action of Wile E. Coyote suddenly looking down with European after overshooting a cliff. modernism, but not dependent upon it. In Key’s people, whether single or grouped in city streets fact, its flavour is just and cabarets – are arranged in frontal, hyper-stylised as Northern as it is, attitudes: to suggest aspects of femininity or urban life, arguably, continental. rather than actual individuals. Often his objects and And, if stylistic chords forms are ambiguous enough to suggest a dual meaning: from Key’s work the twisting tree that resembles a dancer; the curve of a can be heard in that Geoffrey with George Aird, Salford’s hill that evokes the female nude (or, for that matter, vice- of later Northern well know framer who also worked versa); or a doorknob against a blue ground that could contemporary painters for L. S. Lowry. just as easily be a crescent moon, depending on how (and I contend they do), one sees it. Regardless of subject matter, however, what perhaps this further consistently emerges from his work is Key’s sincere desire proves just how diverse Northern art has always been. to help the viewer to see the duality of the visible world: that it is, in turn, gritty and bright, solid and buoyant, Key’s confidence in contrasts, his epicureanism, his awkward and elegant, comic and dignified. sincere commitment to his roots, and the sheer brio of his work remind me of someone, who knew all about evoking the complex without getting complicated. Often termed the first modernist (if not Cubist) writer, Ernest Hemingway once wrote: ‘A few things I have found to be true. If you leave out important things or events that you know about, the story is strengthened. If you leave or skip something because you do not know it, the story will be worthless. The test of any story is how very good the stuff is that you… omit.’

This quote is so much in keeping with how Geoffrey described his own creative motivation above that it’s tempting to ask whether he’s a fan. But then I go back With its bold colour and complex tonalities, strong lines and look at his work, and I remember that ultimately, it and contrapuntal curves, Geoffrey Key’s work expresses really doesn’t matter. the contemporary energy of the (largely) industrial North Andrea Gates with true cosmopolitan panache. But what truly sets his Archivist and Art Historian for Messum’s

oil on canvas 61 x 50.8 cms 24 x 20 ins 10 Visitors, 2012 Opposite oil on canvas 76.2 x 61 cms 30 x 24 ins 11 Shopping, 2012

The remarkable paintings of Geoffrey Key have been part of imitation, but rather, re-evaluation, and every image and parcel of the stock of Todmorden Fine Art since the that Key creates bears his own distinctive interpretation. early 1990s, when we first came across his work at an Furthermore, in this early period of his artistic career, exhibition in a local gallery. In a very short time, we had Key was also observing nature and natural forms and Appreciationbuilt up a vast customer base of enthusiastic collectors, interpreting them in his own unique way. who eagerly began collecting Geoffrey’s work. He has an instinctive understanding of form and colour, is a first-class He was also struggling with the problems of tonal draughtsman and he has an imagination which enables harmony, a preoccupation, which occupied him then, and him to create an infinite variety of images – still lifes, one, which still occupies him to the present day. Tonal portraits, landscapes, nudes, townscapes, dancers, horses, harmony is a leitmotif, which features throughout Key’s jesters, clowns, figure subjects etc. In addition, Geoffrey’s illustrious career. If one follows Key’s work through the works have an international quality – stylistically, they ‘70s, ‘80s, and early ‘90s, it becomes clear that his earlier would be at home as much in New York, Paris, Rome, concept of stylised figures evolved into the monumental Hong Kong or Tokyo as they are in the United Kingdom. figures collectors now appreciate today. They supersede national boundaries, which is why they This is but a brief resumé of the vast body of work that are found in prestigious collections throughout the world. has emanated from the studio of Geoffrey Key over the Key’s work is constantly evolving. In the early sixties, he past 50-plus years. There are many other great works that was observing and drawing influences from the works fall into categories, which, because of space, I have been of the great twentieth century painters, whose work he unable to cover. It is certain, however, that over the next particularly admired – not in the spirit of imitation, but few years, we shall be hearing far more about the work sifting from them certain features, which he felt could of Geoffrey Key, as he surely takes his place as one of the enhance his own work. His debt to Ben Nicholson is clearly most innovative and important painters living in Britain seen in some of his earlier works, and there is evidence today. of his admiration for artists such as Victor Pasmore, David Gunning Paul Nash and Keith Vaughan. In later works, we see the Todmorden Fine Art influence of Picasso and Braque – again, there is no sense It still makes me smile

Ten years ago we discovered an artist so exciting, and Smith, Geoffrey Key. All have a poetry, a kind of so free of the typical ‘gallery artist’ stereotypes that we magic, and none more so than Key.’ walked out of a gallery and into the nearest branch of Laurence Ives, 1976 NatWest in order to secure a loan and take Still Life with Shallots home with us. This statement really made me smile back then – how wonderful it must be to sit in such a study, I thought. At the time we didn’t know anything about this artist, Geoffrey Key, but as our experience and confidence with Yet here I am, writing notes for an exhibition in the same buying art has increased, we realised that this is how art way Mr Ives did over 30 years ago, and Iooking up at the should be bought – from the heart – and you don’t need to walls of my study, I get that magic & poetry; I really get it. know much about Key to see that his art is of exceptional, We recently viewed some of Geoffrey’s series depicting international quality. people in cities going about their everyday business. Of course, once home, curiosity got the better of us and People looking into the canvases, not out at the viewer, we embarked on our research. Numerous books, internet purposeful striding away as if uninterested in our world; searches and reviews were consulted along with the or standing hands on hips leveling a steely glare toward purchase of another painting here, a drawing there, a few the viewer. Such is the perceived attitude of city life in mixed medias, another oil, and so it goes: a landscape, a the second decade of the 21st Century, but I have not seen horse, a still life, people in bars and on the beach. any other artist capture this mood in such a convincing way. Gone are the days when painters from the north have During our research we came across an article by an art to be pastiches of Lowry. Here, Geoffrey Key depicts the connoisseur of note, which stated: same northern town, with a group of people only two or three generations on from the matchstick images, yet the ‘The drawings and paintings hung in my study are message is clear: “Welcome to the (modern) city.” selectively the most persuasive and enduring in my collection. Works by Lowry, Stanley Spencer, Welcome to one of the most important and exciting artists Vaughan, Craxton, Paul Nash, Meninsky, Mathew in England today. James Darbyshire, 2013 Chartered Surveyor Collector, 2013

oil on canvas 50.8 x 61 cms 20 x 24 ins 12 Canal Wharf, 2012 I had been around the world looking at art imitations even though his art is highly collectable. In his and building my collection; looking at Lowry in Hong studio he is lost in a creative space of his own. Kong, Rembrandt in Maastricht, Peploe in Scotland and On meeting another giant in northern art, George Aird, Picasso in the south of France. On my travels I chanced for coffee and a chat occasionally, he comments “how does upon another artist who struck me as being as unique in Geoffrey know what to do? How does he sit in front of a his craft as any of the aforementioned, Geoffrey Key. canvas and start painting? Where does he get his ideas from?” Geoffrey’s work came into view more and more as I delved For me this says it all; we can’t get into the mindset of into the world of art and if I walked into any gallery it great artists because they are out there on their own, would instantly grab my attention. In no time at all I could pushing the boundaries in the solitary confinement of recognise his work instantly and got to really appreciate their own mind, creating new reality. We will never know the journey of the artist’s work over the last half a century. the answers until they appear on the canvas…. You see, in my view, Geoffrey Key’s work is a milestone in Andy Holt art. It is utterly unique and can’t be imitated; you don’t see Industrialist and collector, 2013

1979 ‘Perhaps the artists who stands out most is Geoffrey Key, who 1966 in recent years has gained considerable stature. His robust ‘Geoffrey Key [has] gone it alone with his first one-man Press Cuttings female forms show a self-confidence which is compelling.’ exhibition at the Salford City Art Gallery… [and] had critics, art dealers and buyers raving about his work.’ Jane Clifford, review of Manchester Academy Exhibition, in The Daily Telegraph William Hickey, ‘Uninvited artist gets his own show’ in the Daily Express 1980 ‘Paintings, wash drawings, with some sculpture by ‘The Geoffrey Key of last year was a changed artist…a Geoffrey Key at Salford City Art Gallery … show him to less blatantly likeable [artist], but one who has found new be an artist of considerable promise – and achievement – strength and lingers on and on in the mind because he’s deeply interested in the human figure… his great influences stopped escaping from the world around him.’ are Moore and Vaughan, though his paintings are not Waldemar Januszczak, review of the pastiches of either.’ Altrincham show, in The Guardian F. W. Fenton, ‘Artist of Promise: Dual Influences, in The Daily Telegraph ‘Geoffrey Key can make a magical scene in which figures belong to the communal world of each other. They radiate 1969 an intimacy, which does not come from a direct or literary Trained at Manchester Art College and at a secondary portrayal. They can relate to animate or inanimate objects, school in Salford, Lancashire, Geoffrey Key has not to a horse or bird, an urn or a chariot. There is always a adopted a fixed style, but rather, paints according to his feeling of wonderment in these works. inspiration, which explains [his] variations between Lawrence Ives – taken from the catalogue foreword of the abstract and the concrete… his subjects express the The Oriel Gallery, Dublin richness of colour and a grand sense of the poetic, but are only symbolic in so far as he sees them.’ 2010 R. Smith, ‘Geoffrey Key’ in La Revue Moderne [trans.] ‘Collectors speak of the deep relationships they develop with their Key works – work may be acquired for any number of reasons and locations, yet for those experiencing it, often becomes much more than simply part of their surroundings.’ oil on canvas Lancashire Life 91.5 x 121.9 cms 36 x 48 ins 13 Clouds and Smoke, 2012 oil on canvas oil on canvas 50.8 x 40.6 cms 20 x 16 ins 50.8 x 76.2 cms 20 x 30 ins 14 Church and Chimney, 2012 15 Wooded Valley, 2012 mixed media on paper Works on Paper 40.6 x 27.9 cms 16 x 11 ins 17 Horse in Ploughed Field, 1969

mixed media on paper 58.4 x 40.6 cms 23 x 16 ins 18 Rider with Clouds, 1969

crayon on paper 45.7 x 30.5 cms 18 x 12 ins 16 Figure, 2006 ink and wash on paper ink and wash on paper 15.2 x 17.8 cms 6 x 7 ins 35.6 x 35.6 cms 14 x 14 ins 19 Nab Figures, 1966 21 Window Still LIfe, 2012

ink on paper ink on paper 35.6 x 40.6 cms 14 x 16 ins 38.1 x 45.7 cms 15 x 18 ins 20 Night Rider, 1968 22 Fish, 2012 ink and wash on paper ink on paper 43.2 x 30.5 cms 17 x 12 ins 45.7 x 30.5 cms 18 x 12 ins 23 Instrumentalists, 2008 25 Factory Workers, 2012

ink on paper ink on paper 45.7 x 30.5 cms 18 x 12 ins 48.2 x 35.6 cms 19 x 14 ins 24 City Workers, 2012 26 Party Girl, 2001 mixed media on paper ink on paper 35.6 x 40.6 cms 14 x 16 ins 35.6 x 40.6 cms 14 x 16 ins 27 Table Still Life, 2012 29 Lake Bala, 2002

ink and crayon on paper mixed media on paper 40.6 x 55.9 cms 16 x 22 ins 33 x 45.7 cms 13 x 18 ins 28 Whitby, 1970 30 Moorland, 2005 mixed media on paper 78.7 x 50.8 cms 31 x 20 ins 32 Tennis Players, 1990

ink and wash on paper 35.6 x 25.4 cms 14 x 10 ins 33 Dancers, 1998

mixed media on paper 58.4 x 73.7 cms 23 x 29 ins 31 Table Conversation, 1991 bronze, edition 6/10 bronze, edition 5/10 1 1 7 3 5 23.5 x 25.5 x 15.5 cms 9 ⁄4 x 10 x 6 ⁄8 ins 58 x 65.5 x 27 cms 22 ⁄8 x 25 ⁄4 x 10 ⁄8 ins 34 Xanthos, 1980 35 Trojan, 1986 oil on panel 48.2 x 38.1 cms 19 x 15 ins 36 Hillside Figures, 1966

oil on panel 55.9 x 86.4 cms 22 x 34 ins 37 Nab Figures, 1966

oil on panel 61 x 89 cms 24 x 35 ins 38 Nab Gathering, 1967 oil on panel oil on panel 39 White76.2 x 45.7 Tree, cms 61 x 48.2 cms 24 x 19 ins 301985 x 18 ins 40 Girl with Flowers, 1986 oil on canvas oil on panel 76.2 x 61 cms 30 x 24 ins 61 x 40.6 cms 24 x 16 ins 41 Arm Arch with Blackbird, 1988 42 Sunlit Window, 1989 oil on panel 38.1 x 55.9 cms 15 x 22 ins 43 Still Life with Tankard, 1990

oil on panel 55.9 x 45.7 cms 22 x 18 ins 44 Two Bottles, 1990

oil on panel 45 Coffee61 x 76.2 Grinder cms 24 x with 30 ins Pumpkin, 1990 oil on panel oil on panel 45.7 x 61 cms 18 x 24 ins 58.4 x 50.8 cms 23 x 20 ins 46 Still Life with Tankard II, 1990 47 Window Still Life, 1990 oil on canvas oil on panel 50.8 x 61 cms 20 x 24 ins 50.8 x 73.7 cms 20 x 29 ins 48 Ginger Jar, 1991 49 Summer Meal, 1991 oil on panel oil on panel 61 x 78.7 cms 24 x 31 ins 40.6 x 50.8 cms 16 x 20 ins 50 Kitchen Table II, 1995 51 Scales and Bottle, 1995 oil on canvas oil on panel 61 x 50.8 cms 24 x 20 ins 50.8 x 68.6 cms 20 x 27 ins 52 Dusk Riders, 1996 53 Waiting for Drinks, 1997 oil on canvas oil on canvas 50.8 x 61 cms 20 x 24 ins 40.6 x 30.5 cms 16 x 12 ins 54 Tamarind and Mangosteen, 1998 55 Still Life with Eggs, 2000 oil on canvas oil on canvas 40.6 x 50.8 cms 16 x 20 ins 50.8 x 61 cms 20 x 24 ins 56 Wooded Valley, 2001 57 Road and Trees II, 2002 oil on panel oil on canvas 88.9 x 61 cms 35 x 24 ins 61 x 76.2 cms 24 x 30 ins 58 Hilltop Farm, 2007 59 Smoke and Steam, 2010 oil on canvas oil on canvas 50.8 x 76.2 cms 20 x 30 ins 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in) 60 Evening Rooftops, 2011 61 Tow Bridge, 2011 Geoffrey Key was born and educated in Manchester, in the North West of England. The decades of his professional career as an artist thus far encompass a phenomenal body of work and a serious following amongst collectors. His Aboutearliest and self Geoffrey evident abilities led Key to a sound academic training from the beginning; his tutors formed part of the artistic lineage of the most important figures in British painting and sculpture of their time. He has continued to build upon this legacy. His first post-academic aim, achieved through concentrated work on a single landscape subject, was to divest himself of all but the creative toolkit While work continues to be represented and collected in of his training. the UK, Geoffrey Key is invited to participate in further 80sEuropean – 90s exhibitions, and for the first time, in Hong Kong, where a series of successful solo shows take place. Visiting Manchester High School of Art, Regional College of Art, the Far East for the first time brings a heightened and more Manchester. Awards included national Diploma of Design, intense experience of colour and light in nature, which 50sDiploma – 60s of Associateship of Manchester, Guthrie Bond influences Geoffrey Key’s palette from then on. Travelling Scholarship, Heywood Medal for Fine Art, Postgraduateship in Sculpture. Solo shows UK: Carlisle Art Gallery; Harris Museum & Gallery, Preston; Harrods Gallery & ICAF, London; Arley Major exhibitions: City of Salford Art Gallery (continuing Hall, Cheshire; Portico, Manchester; Millyard, Uppermill, with periodic solo shows through to 1990); University of Lancashire. Sheffield. International: Galerie Unip,Lausanne, Switzerland; New Major commissions and collections: Mather & Platt, City York Coliseum; Powerscourt, Dublin; 25th Salon, St of Manchester Art Gallery, Rutherston Loan Collection, Ouen, Barbizon & Moret-sur-Loing, France, (a landscape Salford City Art Gallery, Bolton Art Gallery, North West commission from Societe Roquefort followed); Damme, Arts, New Salford Players Theatre, Wilsons Brewery, Belgium; Joshua Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur; Carol Lear, National Westminster Bank Sydney, Australia; Mandarin Gallery, Hong Kong.

After a few years working as an art teacher by day and a During the most recent decades solo shows have continued painter and sculptor by night and at all other free moments, and a number of books have been published on the subject 70sGeoffrey Key relinquishes the security of a salary and 2000of Geoffrey & onwards Key and his work. embarks upon a solo career. He begins to show work more widely with exhibitions in the UK and in Europe, where he UK solo shows have taken place in Lancashire, Cheshire is asked to represent the UK at art events in France. and Tyneside.

UK exhibitions: Salford Art Gallery; White Rose, Bradford; Major International solo shows: Sandra Walters Consultancy, Turnpike, Leigh, Lancashire; Pitcairn, Cheshire (annual The Rotunda, Hong Kong; Oriel Gallery, Dublin. solo shows continued until 1990); .

These notes give a brief illustration of how Geoffrey Key’s CCCL ISBN 978-1-908486-42-4 Publication No: CCCL European exhibitions: Vision 35, Nancy, France; Salon career path has evolved in the wake of his dedicated output; Published by David Messum Fine Art d’Automne, Clermont Ferrand, France; Gallery Tendenz, itself a continuum of work that has been informed and © David Messum Fine Art All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted in any form or by any means, Germany. influenced by his own experience and surroundings. electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Studio, Lords Wood, Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Tel: 01628 486565 www.messums.com Photography: Steve Russell Printed by Connekt Colour www.messums.com 8 Cork Street, London W1S 3LJ Telephone: +44 (0)20 7437 5545